"Yes, it is horribly late. Well, as soon as the Ainsworths found out the sort of girl she was, they tried to break off the intimacy, but Margery kept contriving to meet her places, and there was a brother who was just as bad--worse, in fact. So, finally, Margery was sent here to college to get her away from them. She was told not to correspond with either, but there is no surveillance on the letters here, and Margery corresponded all last year with them both, though her parents never knew it. This fall Miss Lampton decided to come here and board for a while. She had just gotten into a scrape that was a little worse than usual in New York, and I suppose she thought she had better go away till the talk blew over." "Has the girl no parents?" "No, only an aunt, who acts as sort of a figurehead, and who has no control over either Miss Lampton or her brother. So she came here to board last fall, and of course wrote to Miss Ainsworth as soon as she came. That is where Beth's room-mate has gone whenever she has disappeared in town." "That is certainly bad enough, but it is not as bad as I feared it might be." "You haven't heard the worst yet, Elizabeth. Every little while the brother came down, and at last he and Margery decided that they were in love with each other, and do you know that they had planned an elopement for this very night?" The girls gave a cry of horror. "Yes, that is absolutely true. If Elizabeth had not let me tell Aunt Mary, so that the faculty was on guard, you see what a dreadful thing would have happened. Now they have telegraphed to Mr. Ainsworth, and Professor Arnold will not leave Margery until she is safe with her father." "How dreadful it all is," and then, despite the lateness of the hour, the girls talked the matter over until there came a light tap at their door. Professor Arnold looked in. "We are not going to be very strict tonight with you freshmen, after you have just achieved such a triumph at your entertainment, but there is really reason in all things, and I advise you to have your light out and to be in bed within five minutes." "Yes'm," three voices responded meekly, and then there was hurried scrambling and the freshmen settled down for the night. The next afternoon saw the three girls at Dolly's home. The following day brought Fred and his two friends, and there was a lively time until Christmas. Christmas morning found them all down in the library, bright and early. The subject of Christmas gifts had troubled Dolly a little, because she feared lest Mary and Mr. Steele might feel that they had no part in the good times. "You see, mamma, that I want to give Mary something as nice as I do Beth, but I know that Mary has hardly any money to spend for presents, and I do not want her to feel mean or awkward about it. And then there is Mr. Steele; he certainly cannot afford to do much in that line, either, and yet, of course, we want to remember him. What shall we do?"